Lady Generals Finish Regular Season 5-2

The MacArthur High School girls lacrosse team came out strong but ultimately fell to regular season conference champs Long Beach Tuesday, surprising the home team with a four-goal outburst early on to take a 4-2 lead before relinquishing it.

The 15-7 loss dropped MacArthur into a tie with East Meadow -- their only other conference loss of the year -- for second place as the regular season ends.

The loss came as Long Beach went on a scoring 10-1 offensive spree between the 12:30 first half mark and the first 10 minutes of the second half.

Despite the loss, MacArthur head coach Janine Bridgewell had plenty of praise for her team. “Our defense did an outstanding job,” she said. “The girls played as one big unit.”

The Lady Mariners came out firing, with senior Emily McLaughlin (six goals, two assists) scoring twice in the first three minutes. And for the next 10 minutes, Long Beach showed exceptional ball control, scooping up rebound after rebound on errant shots, working cutters effectively, and playing a perimeter game that limited MacArthur to fast break and transition opportunities.

But when those opportunities came, the Lady Generals took maximum advantage. Between 21:04 and 13:10 in the first half, the MacArthur attack slammed home four goals -- two from Jessica Gattus and one each for Kristina Coiro and Kelly Pearse -- to force a Lady Mariners time out.

Whatever the Long Beach coach said during the huddle, it had an effect -- the result was a return to the kind of form Long Beach has shown against conference foes all season. Specifically, 20 minutes of dominance.

It was not until there was 15:15 left on the clock, with the Lady Mariners leading by seven goals, that MacArthur got back on the board with a goal from the stick of Kristina Coiro on a quick move across goal. Two minutes later Emily Powell scored her only goal of the game -- to complement two assists on the day -- and that was all the scoring Long Beach would allow on the day.

Goalies Caitlin Cooksey and Kayla McQuillan combined for six saves on the day.

Bright spots in the loss for the Lady Generals were the never-say-die effort put in on the defensive end, and moments of real authority in the transition game, particularly from middies Emily Powell, Jessica Mattus, Kelly Pearse, Maureen Ryan and Haley Jahrmarkt.

With the regular season under their belts, the Lady Generals can now start thinking about the playoffs. It’s been a good regular season,” Bridgewood said. “We went 5-2, our only losses coming to Long Beach and East Meadow. Now we’ll see what happens in the playoffs.”

Playoff seedings will be announced Friday.